


Craigslist cowboy

by InsaneJul



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blind Date, Fluffy Ending, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Online Dating (?), Sibling Love, Some Humor, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-22 23:57:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13177974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneJul/pseuds/InsaneJul
Summary: Worried that Hanzo will spend the Christmas season alone, Genji puts up an ad for him on Craigslist. It goes surprisingly better than expected.





	Craigslist cowboy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Karkiitiie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karkiitiie/gifts).



> Christmas prompt, slightly changed, as requested by Sam for Christmas. Merry Christmas everybody!

_Mature, handsome man, quiet personality, looking for some companionship during the holidays. Apply within._

Genji honestly meant it as a joke. A few creeps would respond to it, he’d show Hanzo, and they’d have a good laugh about it. Well, at least Genji would. Hanzo would probably reprimand him and talk about the dangers of identity fraud, or something stupid like that. They might be in their late thirties, but they acted much the same as they did as teenagers, sometimes.

It was just...unfair, really. Genji had so much to do over the holidays, parties and events with his friends, and Hanzo had nothing. No plans at all. They didn’t celebrate Christmas, and only Genji celebrated the Gregorian New Year (Hanzo wasn't exactly getting invited to parties like he was), but he couldn’t help but feel that Hanzo would be horribly alone for the holiday season—from December 24 to January 1, at the very least. Hanzo didn’t exactly like spending time with Genji, but he probably disliked being alone even more—probably.

Then, on December 19, he got a response to the stupid Craigslist ad. Genji opened it up excitedly, sure that some drunken middle-aged woman or rich old man had responded in the hopes of some mildly fulfilling companionship. Instead, there was only one response, no picture attached, and it read like this:

_I’m in the same area as you, according to the info, and I also don’t have any family to spend the holidays with. This is probably a prank, but if it isn’t, I wouldn’t mind making a new friend and having some company. Send me a message if you’re interested._

So now Genji had a dilemma: this seemed like an actual, real person, who actually, really wanted someone to talk to during the holiday season. From here, he had two options: ignore the response and allow both Hanzo and whoever this was to be alone, or tell Hanzo that he had essentially pimped him out on Craigslist. Neither sounded too great. He would have spent more time deliberating over it, but after glancing at the response again he realized that he might have a third option that involved much fewer people being unhappy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_A friend is just what I need this time of year. I apologize for the crass language in my original advertisement. For both of our safety, we should meet for the first time in a public place. Contact me at this email address:_

Jesse McCree had responded to the ad on a whim, half-drunk and in the middle of a fight with both of his adopted sisters. Sounded like the guy wanted a booty call, but he responded to it politely and got politeness right back. Maybe he actually could avoid spending the holidays alone and thinking about both of his sisters in different countries. And maybe the fact that this was their first Christmas without their parents, though that was a little harder to forget.

So, he made plans with the stranger to get lunch at a local café, because why not? It was a public place, and he could certainly take most random strangers in a fight, if he had to. And if he was being honest, if this guy was originally angling for a booty call, he’d be down with that too. It had been a while.

Olivia finally called him the morning he was going to meet the Craigslist guy—December 23. “Hey, _bobo_. Look, I’m sorry for yelling, okay? It’s stressful for all of us to be apart, and I know it’s the hardest on you, I mean you don’t even know anybody there. We can set up a video call on Christmas day, if you want. I think that would be nice.”

“That would be nice. But I…” McCree considered briefly telling her what he was up to, then rejected the idea. “I made a friend recently, also alone on the holidays. So I think I’ll be able to handle it a bit better.”

“That’s great!” Olivia’s smile could be heard through the phone. “Call still on, though?”

“Sure. I’ll alert Fareeha and see if she can call too.”

“Good idea.”

“Anyway, I hate to cut the conversation short, but I’m on my way to meet my friend, so…”

“Oh, _por supuesto._ Talk to you later?”

“ _Te llamaré, hermana. Hasta luego.”_ With that, he hung up and glanced at himself in the mirror. Cowboy hat, check. Spurs taken off boots to avoid making weird impression, check. BAMF belt buckle, safely hidden under his shirt for now. That was as good as it was going to get. Out he went.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hanzo drummed his fingers on the table. Genji’s setups had always been dead ends, and he had sworn them off forever just a few months ago, but at this point he was desperate. His brother said that he’d met the man online, so neither of the Shimadas had seen him in person, which boded poorly, but here he was anyway. He scratched the back of his neck, still startling slightly at the feeling of his buzzed hair. He’d gotten the undercut mostly as a depression haircut, and was acclimating very slowly. Genji had laughed for ten straight minutes when he saw Hanzo afterwards, and called him a “hipster butterfly”, which Hanzo didn’t understand but assumed was denigrating.

The soft tinkle of bells pulled him out of his thoughts and he glanced at the door. A man about his age, dressed half normally and half like a cowboy, was standing in the doorway, glancing around. When he spoke to the woman behind the counter, she pointed at Hanzo, who immediately put his head down as if he hadn’t been watching. _Smooth, Shimada Hanzo,_ he thought.

“Can I sit?” the man had something of an accent that Hanzo couldn’t place. It was part southern and part something else. He nodded wordlessly, and the other man slid into the seat across from him and held out a hand. “Jesse McCree. Don’t think we ever mentioned names.”

“’We’?” Hanzo shook his hand, but stayed wary.

“Yeah, when we made plans to meet here?”

“Ah,” Hanzo smirked.

“What’s so funny?”

“You spoke to my brother, I believe. He simply told me yesterday that he had found me a companion and that I had better go see him.”

McCree chuckled. “I’d say that seems a little sudden, but my sister would probably do something similar. Once she made a Grindr account for me and started cyber-stalking everyone who responded to it.”

Hanzo raised an eyebrow.

“Not to you, obviously! I didn’t tell her anything about you. Not taking that chance again.”

“I appreciate that.”

“So you gonna tell me your name, or what?”

“Oh!” Hanzo blinked in surprise. “Shimada Hanzo. Just call me Hanzo. I’m sorry, it’s been a long time since I met new people…my brother excels at that and I have always been more…introverted.”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with that,” McCree leaned back in the chair and smiled at him. Hanzo realized for the first time since this man entered the establishment that he was…startlingly handsome. And he had a very pleasant smile. “But I got a question for you.”

Hanzo snapped out of his musings and said, “what is it?”

“How did your brother get this area as his location on Craigslist? Doesn’t it have location services?”

“Well, yes,” Hanzo narrowed his eyes in confusion. “He and I live together.”

It was then McCree’s turn to be surprised and confused. “Then why’d he get an internet date for you for the holidays?”

Hanzo tried to ignore the word ‘date’ when he responded. “Genji—my brother—has many friends here, and much to do in the next week. I believe he was worried about my being alone for so long at such a time of year. Of course, he and I do not celebrate Christmas or the Gregorian new year, but there is some…pressure, even though it is not holiday season for us, to spend this period with loved ones.”

“I hear ya on that,” McCree took a sip of water. “Both my sisters are out of the country, and I miss ‘em all the time, but this time of year everyone’s telling ya it’s all about family and it just gets that much worse.”

“I envy your ability to stay on good terms with your family. In truth, Genji and I do not get along very well, and we moved here from Japan in order to leave the rest of our family behind.”

“Really? Why’s that?”

Hanzo casually drank a spoonful of his freshly brought chicken soup, and said, “they were all criminals and we needed to escape.”

“Damn,” was all McCree said in response, and they ate in silence for a few minutes.

“Usually people are more disturbed to learn that Genji and I were raised in a crime family.”

McCree shrugged. “I was raised in a gang.”

“Ah.”

“Don’t got any real flesh-and-blood family, like you got your brother. My two sisters are adopted—or at least one of them is. The other one I just call my sister because her mom was close friends with my adoptive dad, and she was basically my mother—it’s kind of complicated.”

“You don’t need to explain all of it now if you don’t want to.”

“Thanks.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Christmas day, Genji was out with his almost-girlfriend and his ex-boyfriend, when he got a text from Hanzo.

_McCree is here. Not sure for how long, you may be able to meet him._

_Cool_ , was all he decided to say back, and concentrated on his friends.

“I had a nice skype call with my sisters this morning,” McCree told Hanzo, following him into the kitchen. “Wasn’t very long, but we got to see each other and say something for Ana and Gabriel—our parents. Lit a few candles, you know.”

“That is very sweet. An honorable tradition.”

“Gabe started it,” Jesse sat down next to Hanzo at the kitchen table. “Lit one a couple days a year for his late husband, Jack. One on his birthday and one on Christmas.”

“Would it be rude to ask what happened to him?”

“Nah,” McCree shrugged. “It was a long time ago. I barely met the guy myself. He was military. KIA. Gabe got out of the army before him, and he never completely forgave himself for it.”

“I am sorry to hear it.”

“Told ya my family situation was complicated. How’s your brother? Out?”

“Yes. Out,” Hanzo smiled and Jesse took a moment to catch his breath. He couldn’t remember the last time he so readily trusted someone, wanted to talk to them—he also couldn’t remember the last time he’d met someone so attractive. “That is how he prefers to be.”

“I don’t know, whenever I go out I tend to get myself in trouble. That’s why I stay in these days.”

“Sometimes it is better to miss an opportunity than invite disaster.”

“Don’t need to invite disaster,” McCree grinned over at Hanzo. “it’s a permanent resident at my place.”

They both laughed, and Hanzo suggested they watch a movie of some kind. “you can pick, I don’t really mind.”

McCree had a backlog of westerns streaming on Netflix he wanted to see, and when he learned Hanzo had never seen one, he insisted they watch at least one. “It’s an integral part of American culture, these things. I don’t know how much you intend to learn about American culture, but you should begin with a western. Then maybe we can start you on Pixar and Star Wars.”

Hanzo scoffed. “I have already seen Star Wars, I didn’t live under a rock in Japan.”

“Oh, good, I was starting to worry.”

About halfway through the movie, McCree had snuck an arm around Hanzo, who had surreptitiously leaned a little closer to the cowboy. Hanzo decided that, despite the comfortable quiet between them and the movie, he had already spent too long wondering.

“Why did you answer my brother’s ad?”

McCree looked down at him, eyebrows raised. “What do you mean?”

“I looked it up later. It was clearly a joke. What made you respond to it?”

“Look, I…” McCree ran a hand through his hair. “I been lonely as hell lately, and even if it was a joke or a booty call or whatever, I just wanted to try. See if I could make a friend of any kind. I think it worked out just fine.”

“Still…” Hanzo shook his head. “Genji’s ad was ridiculous.”

“I think it was pretty accurate, all things considered.”

“Accurate?!”

“Yeah, as I recall, it said you were mature, quiet, and uh…” McCree hesitated for just a moment before finishing. “handsome.”

“Ah, you think I am handsome?” Hanzo winked at McCree, who swallowed visibly, to Hanzo’s amusement. “Do not be embarrassed. That is a compliment.”

“I wouldn’t be embarrassed if I didn’t think I was getting rejected.”

“Rejected? I don’t recall you asking for anything.”

McCree leaned down, closer to Hanzo’s face. “How’s this, then: I’ve known you for two days and I think you’re the prettiest damn thing I ever set eyes on. Would you mind it too much if I kissed you?”

Hanzo snorted, startling Jesse just a little. “I would, in fact, enjoy that very much.”

They leaned closer, and just as their lips began to brush together, the front door to the apartment slammed open. “Hanzo? Are you still home, brother?” They pulled apart and managed to look completely platonic by the time Genji got to the living room.

“Oh! You must be the Craigslist cowboy,” Genji stuck out a hand and grinned brightly, cold-flushed cheeks not completely faded, and McCree couldn’t help but smile back and shook his hand.

“That’d be me.”

“You know, Hanzo said you were good-looking, but I didn’t believe him until I saw you.” The younger Shimada winked at him. “take good care of my brother.”

“Genji, I am older than you and I am perfectly capable of making my own decisions!” Hanzo called after his brother as he left the room, presumably to get ready to go somewhere else, but it was only halfhearted.

“So you think I’m good-looking, huh?”

Hanzo turned back to see McCree with a rather smug smirk.

“Genji made that up to embarrass me,” Hanzo asserted, then surprised Jesse with a very quick kiss. “But he wasn’t wrong.”

**Author's Note:**

> bobo: derogatory term, kind of like "idiot"  
> por supuesto: of course  
> te llamaré: I will call you  
> hermana: sister  
> hasta luego: see you later
> 
> Here's the "hipster butterfly" fan art I stole the phrase from, sorry bro http://kingsdarga.tumblr.com/post/155052870001/sothat-hanzo-design-bonus


End file.
